One of my friends wanted a pair of mitts for his wife and asked me to design and knit them. Since the idea of what he was requesting was intriguing, I gladly began working on them. The result is above.
They’re a really quick and easy knit. It feels like I spent more time weaving in ends than actually knitting them, but they’re really cool and stretchy. Kind of like an accordion.
I also discovered while knitting these is that I really like using Wendy Norse Chunky. It’s surprising since the yarn is a wool/acrylic blend and I usually prefer all natural blends (mainly due to the softness and sweaty-ness factors). But I can see myself eventually knitting a whole sweater out of this yarn. Once I clear out some of my stash and queue first obviously.

Speaking of knitting sweaters, I’ve cast on for Lia by Mandie Harrington. It’s Knitty pattern (as most of the sweater patterns are that I knit up). I’m using INOX 6.5mm circs. I originally bought these needles to make a French Market Bag back in 2007, but I never got around to knitting it so the needles have just been lying around in my needle stash. As many of you may have noticed, I gravitate towards knitting with smaller needles and thinner yarn. But now that I’ve found a pattern and yarn that called for bigger needles, I’m glad I have them. And they’re unexpectedly good! I guess I just assumed that since I bought them when I was still a beginner knitter, I didn’t know what I was getting.

Still making more squares. And knitting that shawl for my mom.

Book review time! Quickies, I promise.
For Christmas, I received a *lot* of books. Mainly from O. ^_^

I devoured The Help by Kathryn Stockett in three days starting immediately on Christmas Day. It was really good and I had a really hard time putting it down. I would have finished it in two days, but I had to drive to O’s parents place and back, so that cut a little bit into my reading time. I just hope the movie lives up to the high standards of the book (of course I want to see it now).

Next up, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. I liked it. It was quirky and fast and I could feel the narrator Rose growing up as she told her story. The story begins when she’s a child and ends when she is in her mid-twenties. She has a peculiar ability; she can taste the emotions of whoever cooked or baked the food she eats. And the story starts off with Rose feeling her mother’s sadness in a lemon cake.
I was telling O about one section of the book where she is eating a sandwich prepared by the girlfriend of a baker. She feels the sandwich yelling at her “Love me!”. So O lifted his eyebrow and said: “That sounds like something you’d write.” Which is really funny, because when I was in Montana a few years ago, my writing teacher compared my style with Aimee’s (who I had never heard of until then). So it makes sense that I’d like her books.

I’ve got one more book that I’ve read since Christmas, but since this post is getting to be really long, I’ll leave it for next week. Need something to beef up next week’s post since my knitting won’t have really made much visible progress by then.